1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to photographic packing equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In commercial photographic processing operations, very high rates of processing must be achieved and maintained in order to operate profitably. For that reason, many rolls (or strips) of photographic film from various customers are typically spliced together for processing and printing purposes. After prints have been made from the photographic film, an individual customer's film must be separated from the large roll of film formed by the spliced-together film strips. Typically, the customer's film is cut into segments (or strips) of several frames each so that the segments can be placed flat in an envelope together with the customer's prints.
In the past, equipment has been developed to eliminate many of the operations required for cutting the film segments. One particularly advantageous apparatus, which automates film cutting, print paper cutting, print sorting, and packaging is known as the Pako Photopacker, manufactured by Pako Corporation, the assignee of the present application. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,114,349 by G. A. Jensen, L. A. Larson and R. E. Diesch; 4,139,978 by G. A. Jensen and A. J. Willenbring; and 4,139,980, by L. A. Larson and R. E. Diesch illustrate portions of mechanisms which have been used in the Pako Photopacker. The film cutting, conveying and packing mechanism is illustrated in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,978, and is described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,980. In general, this apparatus includes upper and lower conveyor belts positioned to receive individual nonoverlapping cut photographic film segments from a film cutter and inserting those segments into a packaging envelope. As the individual segments are discharged at the discharge end of the conveyor belt assemblies, the individual segments are deflected downward by a deflector element onto the stack of film segments which have previously been cut. The purpose of the deflector element is to cause the trailing edge of each segment to snap downward out of the path of the next segment being conveyed. In this apparatus, each film segment is power driven into the envelope in stacked relation above the previously deposited film segment. Since the segments are nonoverlapping, the apparatus drives only a single segment into the envelope at one time.
While the film conveying and packing mechanism shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,139,978 and 4,139,980 has generally been effective in depositing cut film segments into an order envelope, it has been discovered that there are some circumstances under which jamming of the mechanism can occur. In particular, a problem has been encountered in depositing 35 mm film segments into an order envelope utilizing the prior mechanism. The problem is caused by the sprocket holes of 35 mm film, which do not have a fixed relationship with respect to the individual film frame. In some instances when a segment of 35 mm film is cut from the strip, the cut passes through the sprocket holes which causes the trailing edge of the segment just cut and the leading edge of the next segment to be ragged due to the open segment holes. As the film segment with the ragged leading edge is advanced by the conveying mechanism and is deflected downward onto the top of the previously stacked film segments, the ragged leading edge can catch on the sprocket holes of the previously deposited film segment. When this occurs, the film segment buckles and jams the mechanism, so that further segments cannot be deposited in the envelope.